The Cañon City School District announced Monday its plans to return to the classroom Aug. 17.
On its website, the district outlined the return for students during the coronavirus pandemic. There are three separate plans for students in different grade levels.
All students in grades fifth through 12th, as well as staff, will be required to wear a mask because of the state order.
“We ask that students provide their own personal mask, but masks will be provided for students in need,” the website states.
Students and staff also will have their temperatures taken daily. The district is designating a select number of secure entry points for students to be able to take temperatures before entering schools. Families are asked to conduct temperature checks before children leave for school in the morning. Students who have a temperature of 100.4 degrees or above will have to return home.
Support Services Director Paula Buser said that should a positive case happen at a school, the district will work with the Fremont County Department of Public Health and Environment to conduct contact tracing and follow Centers for Disease Control testing and quarantine guidance for the student and any close contact.
“A close contact is defined as anyone who was within 6 feet of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 for a continuous 15-minute time period (or greater) dating back to two days prior to the onset of symptoms,” Buser said.
Buser said, for example, if someone experienced symptoms July 20 and tested positive, contact tracing would go back to July 18. Those “close contacts” also would be quarantined and tested per the guidance of the health department.
Buser said full school closures would be triggered by five or more classrooms with outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools or at least 5% of the school population or at least 10 unrelated students or staff test positive for COVID-19 within a 14-day period.
These scenarios indicate widespread transmission within the school environment, Buser said.
“Full school closures will protect staff, teachers and students when transmission of COVID-19 is most likely to occur in a school,” she said.
Full online options are available for students who don’t feel comfortable returning to the classroom. The following are a few of the guidelines for each grade level for students who choose to return this fall.
Elementary schools guidelines
— Schools will use the same start and stop times as they did last year.
— Health department guidance allows elementary-aged classrooms to run with normal classroom sizes. That group of students is considered a “cohort.” That cohort of students will have minimal interaction with other cohorts. Applicable teachers will rotate into the classroom throughout the day.
— Students come to the cafeteria in cohorts to pick up Grab and Go or contactless traditional meals. Students eat with their cohort in the classroom or other specified area.
— Recess may occur outside and within cohorts. Playground equipment may be used by small groups of students as long as they wash their hands upon returning to the school.
For more information, visit https://ccsregistration.org/20-21ccsreopening/Elementary_School_Specific.pdf.
Middle schools guidelines
— 7:45 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. Early release time will remain at 1:35 for CCMS and 1:15 for Harrison on alternating Fridays.
— Groups of 20 maximum, allowing for 6-foot between-student spacing.
— Students come to the cafeteria in cohorts to pick up Grab and Go or contactless traditional meals. Students eat with their cohort in the classroom or other specified area.
— Lunches will be staggered and students will stay in cohort groups during lunch recess or any other recess breaks throughout the day.
For more information, visit https://ccsregistration.org/20-21ccsreopening/Middle_School_Specific.pdf.
High school guidelines
— CCHS will host three cohorts per class/block (online, Cohort A, Cohort B). Online students will be able to accomplish material pickup for labs, but will not attend live. The district will know the size of the online cohort when registration ends at the end of July. Cohort A (last names beginning with A-L) attends Mondays and Wednesdays and Cohort B attends on Tuesdays and Thursdays (M-Z). Admin and admin/counseling staff will review the schedule, class-by-class, to balance the division between cohorts, according to the governor’s guidance, which is to keep a 6-foot distance between students in classrooms.
The district is calculating the maximum number per classroom size and will use that number to determine the balance of each cohort and whether or not we need to reschedule students in unbalanced classes (27 cap /3 cohorts — depends largely on the size of the online cohort — the goal is less than 12 students per day per course). School Friday mornings will be dedicated to teacher office hours, special population time, and Friday Sessions.
CCHS will begin school with an asynchronous hybrid model in most classes. Teachers will teach the current curriculum to one cohort per day in a live fashion, while two cohorts per day are receiving the same curriculum via virtual experience. Each teacher also will be provided with a camera and the ability to live-stream courses as necessary (in case a student wishes to attend in a synchronous manner). These video sessions can also be recorded and placed in Schoology for students to watch again or at a different time (asynchronous).
— 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (7.5 hours long – 40-minute lunch). Teacher duty schedules will help monitor students in classrooms before school and during lunch.
— All students will be released at 12:06 for lunch. Students not purchasing lunch who wish to leave campus must leave through side/back doors. Only students purchasing lunch at CCHS are allowed to come into the Commons and can choose to exit the main front doors after they have done so. Grab-and-Go lunches are placed on four socially distanced tables in the Commons. Possible hot foods offered are TBD. Students will take their lunches to their fourth-block classrooms (unless their classroom is a lab and then they will be reassigned to another room) or outside to eat.
For more information, visit https://ccsregistration.org/20-21ccsreopening/High_School_Specific.pdf.